Americans sending more text messages via cell phone — WSJ

According to CTIA-The Wireless Association, 4.7 billion text messages were sent in the U.S. last December, the latest figures available, compared with 2.1 billion a year earlier and 253 million in December 2001.

According Forrester Research Inc., revenue from text messaging is projected to grow from $2.5 billion in 2004 to $4.3 billion in 2006.

U.S. lags behind in “texting” compared with Europe and Asia. An article in today’s Wall Street Journal says “CTIA estimates that in 2004, U.S. cellphone users sent 203 text messages on average, or 37 billion in total, while in China, cellphone users exchanged 651 per user, or 218 billion in total, according to the Chinese information industry ministry. About 71% of European cellphone users send text messages, more than twice the percentage in the U.S., says Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester.”

Text messaging, also known as short message service or SMS, is a service available on most mobile phones that permits the sending of short messages phones and handheld devices. Originally SMS was designed as part of the GSM digital mobile phone standard, but today is available on a wide range of networks.

By mid-2004 texts were being sent at a rate of 500 billion messages per year. “At an average cost of USD 0.10 per message, this generates revenues in excess of 50 billion for mobile telephone operators and represents close to 100 text messages for every person in the world.”

The Philippines had the highest rate of texting in the world in 2003 when the average user sent 2,300 messages.

Spain: around 50 texts per user per month (2003).

Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom: 35-40 messages per user per month (2003).